sorry for this but it is opened for me for free any way here it is
A $10 BILLION tunnel through Melbourne’s northeast is being considered by both major parties in the wake of Victoria’s port lease windfall.
The North East Link, connecting the Metropolitan Ring Road and the Eastern Freeway, is the top infrastructure priority for business and transport groups, and support for it is growing.
Infrastructure Victoria is investigating its benefits, as well as those of an airport rail line, a second Melbourne Metro rail tunnel, and the East West Link, as it prepares a 30-year infrastructure blueprint.
The government has promised to spend the
$9.7 billion from the Port of Melbourne lease on transport projects.
Infrastructure Victoria estimates the North East Link would cost $5 billion-$10 billion and by 2031 could carry 20,000 cars during the two-hour peak.
The second Melbourne Metro tunnel, which would run from Clifton Hill to Fishermans Bend and Newport, is considered a longer-term proposition because it relies on the completion of the first Metro tunnel.
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It would form a third rail tunnel system below the CBD which boost rail capacity in and out of the city. It would interchange through the new Parkville station.
The
Herald Sun understands the North East Link would most likely be tolled if it was built, amid concerns about its potential cost-benefit ratio.
“It’s the missing link,” RACV public policy manager Brian Negus said of the road.
“There is massive congestion across that whole northeast sector of Melbourne.”
He said of two possible routes that should be investigated, the cheaper could cost $5 billion-$6 billion. It would involve transforming Greensborough Rd into a widened highway that would run south from the Ring Road before going underground, north of Lower Plenty Rd, then coming up to join the Eastern Freeway near Ivanhoe or Bulleen.
The more expensive route, tipped to cost upwards of $10 billion, would run a tunnel east through Eltham and Warrandyte, which would then rise above-ground and connect near the start of EastLink.
A report by Aurecon and Deloitte, for Infrastructure Victoria, said roads in the northeast had “the slowest travel speeds” in peaks and the “longest delays in travel time”.
“The North East Link will reduce travel time and halt rat-runs through congested arterial roads in the northeast.”
Treasurer Tim Pallas said earlier this year that the road “innately” made sense, and Opposition Leader Matthew Guy has previously described it as essential.
The Turnbull Government also promised $5 million for a North East Link options study during the election campaign.
Infrastructure Victoria chief Michel Masson said a draft 30-year strategy would be released next month and a final strategy presented to parliament by the end of the year, to provide “a pipeline of projects, policy initiatives and reform
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